Oono miniDAB/FM/MP3 MD-2Plus2 SE - Oono miniDAB/FM/MP3 MD-2Plus2 SE

Summary

Our Score

5/10

Review Price free/subscription

The internal memory is now up to 2GB, which is quite an upgrade over the 128MBs that the first one had, which amusingly I actually described as generous - just goes to show how far we've come in one year. The SD card slot is present but unfortunately this hasn't been upgraded to accept SDHC cards, so instead of a current maximum of 8GB, with more to follow, the limit is a mere 2GB. However, how much of a loss this actually is, is debatable. Without wanting to harp on about it, this is no iPod, and due to the limitations of the interface I can't see any point having more than 2GB of music on this at one time anyway.

The Oono website boasts that, with its maximum 4GB of capacity, you can record up to 2,840 minutes of high quality DAB radio @192Kbps. This is true, but why would you want to? You might want to capture a long concert or documentary, however you'll need to be in an area of great reception - a point I'll touch upon later.

The Lithium Polymer battery is built-in so can't be replaced yourself if it ever dies, though you can send it away should it ever come to that. There's a one year warranty as standard. Battery life figures are impressive, DAB: 8 Hours, FM: 22 Hours, MP3: 22 Hours, Voice: 22 Hours, DAB Recording: 6 Hours, FM Recording: 17 Hours. It takes four hours to charge via the wall plug and can also charge over USB, though it takes longer.

Plug in the Oono via USB and it immediately pops up as removable storage, so you can use it to transport any kind of files. You can also see both the internal memory and the SD card, so you can transfer between the two from within Windows. A quick word on the headphones, as usual they're not outstanding quality and the player sounds better on higher quality cans.

Getting to grips with the interface is still something of a learning curve. You hold down the Play/Stop button in the centre to get started, and after that, it's pretty much point and stab randomly until you get to grips with the thing. The basic functionality is the same as that on the miniDAB One so there's no point recapping everything. Essentially, the Mode button flicks you between DAB, FM, and Music and Voice.